Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Peek \Peek\, v. i. [OE. piken: cf. F. piquer to pierce, prick,
   E. pique. Cf. {Peak}.]
   To look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a
   crevice; to peep. [Colloq.]

Source : WordNet®

peek
     n : a secret look [syn: {peep}]
     v : throw a glance at; take a brief look at; "She only glanced
         at the paper"; "I only peeked--I didn't see anything
         interesting" [syn: {glance}, {glint}]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

PEEK
     
        The command in most {microcomputer} {BASIC}s for reading
        memory contents (a byte) at an absolute address.  POKE is the
        corresponding command to write a value to an absolute address.
     
        This is often extended to mean the corresponding constructs in
        any {High Level Language}.
     
        Much hacking on small {microcomputer}s without {MMU}s consists
        of "peek"ing around memory, more or less at random, to find
        the location where the system keeps interesting stuff.  Long
        (and variably accurate) lists of such addresses for various
        computers circulate (see {interrupt list}).  The results of
        "poke"s at these addresses may be highly useful, mildly
        amusing, useless but neat, or total {lossage} (see {killer
        poke}).
     
        Since a {real operating system} provides useful, higher-level
        services for the tasks commonly performed with peeks and pokes
        on micros, and real languages tend not to encourage low-level
        memory groveling, a question like "How do I do a peek in C?"
        is diagnostic of the {newbie}.  Of course, {operating system}
        {kernel}s often have to do exactly this; a real {C} hacker
        would unhesitatingly, if unportably, assign an absolute
        address to a pointer variable and indirect through it.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1995-01-31)